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Original poster

Worthing west sussex

12 replies

Tiredteacher12 · 04/04/2023 07:09

Can I have honest opinions about living in Worthing, West Sussex?
I grew up there and now we spend lots of time there. What is it actually like to live there with primary aged children?
I’ve heard that there’s a problem with druggies. Is this the case?
thank you!

OP posts:
chenilleblanket · 04/04/2023 07:18

We left Worthing last year after 5 years, we have a toddler and I worked with teens/children when we lived there. We left because of the increasing violent crime, there are a lot of stabbings it seems, one at the station by our house in broad daylight, and the town centre/seafront can be quite unpleasant with a big group of street drinkers hanging around. The traffic was also AWFUL, any accident or roadworks on one of the major routes out of Worthing and it was gridlock.
Positives, it was nice to be by the sea and at the time our house was affordable for us as FTB.
I'm sure people will have good things to say about Worthing but personally we didn't want our child growing up somewhere they might be involved in or see things like assaults so we moved somewhere cheaper and less populated where there is much less of this going on.

Original poster
Tiredteacher12 · 04/04/2023 07:24

Thank you. Out of interest where did you move to? If you don’t mind saying? X

OP posts:
Binfluencer · 04/04/2023 07:50

PIL live there and TBH I find visiting incredibly depressing. Deprived town centre, nothing to do etc.

Close to Brighton though

LiftyLift · 04/04/2023 07:53

We have friends there and have visited multiple times. The town does seem run down now and when we’ve been there have witnessed young children swearing in the park and street drinkers loitering in the town. I wouldn’t choose to live there tbh.

chenilleblanket · 04/04/2023 08:25

We moved to South Wales so quite a way away, obviously there is crime here but we were able to afford to live in a small village where there is less than in a large town like Worthing. Good luck with your decision!

MaireadMcSweeney · 04/04/2023 08:29

It's fine. No better or worse than any other mid size town. The centre isn't particularly run down! Much nicer than many town centres I've seen. Knife crime is an issue but I don't believe it's worse than other areas. Same with drugs. If you live in a town sadly these days knives and drugs will be present.

However the traffic is AWFUL. Really truly awful.

SootspriteSearcher · 04/04/2023 08:30

We live near worthing and visit but no way would I live there. I always make sure we are not in the town centre after dark as it gets pretty rough. When with DH late evening we were accosted by a couple of drunk men asking for money, they were quite forceful. There's also been stabbings there so my dd is not allowed to go there alone.

I only know about the town centre, no idea on the outskirts there might be some nicer areas but I'm not willing to risk it. Despite needing to move I would rather live in a smaller property or pay more a month and feel safe.

Dontjudgeme101 · 04/04/2023 08:38

Worthing is fine. There are a lot worse places to live. No place is perfect. Crime happens all over the country, not just Worthing! I think it’s a great place to raise children. The schools are ok. There are lots of young families around. You have the beach. It’s not far from Brighton. It’s still a safe place to live.

Noisyneighbour87 · 04/04/2023 08:41

There is a group of street drinkers in town, but I've not seen them causing issues beyond loudness. There does seem to be a lot of drugs too, but I came from Brighton so it's much of a muchness. I'm not keen to go out after dark in certain areas of town alone. We will probably move in a few years when we can afford to, more so for a house though. We've been looking at Burgess Hill, but no idea what it's like there to live. The town centre has gone downhill the last few years due to increasing business costs, so there's a lot of empty shops.

WestCountryJohn · 04/04/2023 13:08

Isn't Goring meant to be a bit nicer ?

MaireadMcSweeney · 04/04/2023 13:30

Noisyneighbour87 · 04/04/2023 08:41

There is a group of street drinkers in town, but I've not seen them causing issues beyond loudness. There does seem to be a lot of drugs too, but I came from Brighton so it's much of a muchness. I'm not keen to go out after dark in certain areas of town alone. We will probably move in a few years when we can afford to, more so for a house though. We've been looking at Burgess Hill, but no idea what it's like there to live. The town centre has gone downhill the last few years due to increasing business costs, so there's a lot of empty shops.

Burgess hell? DP grew up there and goes there for work. It's much less salubrious than Worthing.

chenilleblanket · 04/04/2023 14:35

WestCountryJohn · 04/04/2023 13:08

Isn't Goring meant to be a bit nicer ?

We actually lived in Goring but not the nice bit. I think South of the Trainline is better than North. One of our main pushes to move was the people opposite us blatantly dealing from their house. I reported them to the police countless times and they said they'd log it as anti social behaviour Confused
There are definitely some nice bits of Worthing, it's just whether you have the budget for that or not.

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